Monday, December 9, 2013

On This Day in History - December 9 Lech Walesa, Founder of Solidarity, Elected to Lead Poland

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

Dec 9, 1990: Walesa elected president of PolandIn Poland, Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity trade union, wins a landslide election victory, becoming the first directly elected Polish leader. Walesa, born in 1943, was an electrician at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk when he was fired for union agitation in 1976. When protests broke out in the Gdansk shipyard over an increase in food prices in August 1980, Walesa climbed the shipyard fence and joined the thousands of workers inside. He was elected leader of the strike committee, and three days later the strikers' demands were met. Walesa then helped coordinate other strikes in Gdansk and demanded that the Polish government allow the free formation of trade unions and the right to strike. On August 30, the government conceded to the strikers' demands, legalizing trade unionism and granting greater freedom of religious and political expression. Millions of Polish workers and farmers came together to form unions, and Solidarity was formed as a national federation of unions, with Walesa as its chairman. Under Walesa's charismatic leadership, the organization grew in size and political influence, soon becoming a major threat to the authority of the Polish government. On December 13, 1981, martial law was declared in Poland, Solidarity was outlawed, and Walesa and other labor leaders were arrested. In November 1982, overwhelming public outcry forced Walesa's release, but Solidarity remained illegal. In 1983, Walesa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Fearing involuntary exile, he declined to travel to Norway to accept the award. Walesa continued as leader of the now-underground Solidarity movement, and he was subjected to continual monitoring and harassment by the Communist authorities. In 1988, deteriorating economic conditions led to a new wave of labor strikes across Poland, and the government was forced to negotiate with Walesa. In April 1989, Solidarity was again legalized, and its members were allowed to enter a limited number of candidates in upcoming elections. By September, a Solidarity-led government coalition was in place, with Walesa's colleague Tadeusz Mazowiecki as premier. In 1990, Poland's first direct presidential election was held, and Walesa won by a landslide. President Walesa successfully implemented free-market reforms, but unfortunately he was a far more effective labor leader than president. In 1995, he was narrowly defeated in his reelection by former communist Aleksander Kwasniewski, head of the Democratic Left Alliance. Dec 9, 1917: Jerusalem surrenders to British troops On the morning of this day in 1917, after Turkish troops move out of the region after only a single day s fighting, officials of the Holy City of Jerusalem offer the keys to the city to encroaching British troops. The British, led by General Edmund Allenby, who had arrived from the Western Front the previous June to take over the command in Egypt, entered the Holy City two days later under strict instructions from London on how not to appear disrespectful to the city, its people, or its traditions. Allenby entered Jerusalem on foot—in deliberate contrast to Kaiser Wilhelm s more flamboyant entrance on horseback in 1898—and no Allied flags were flown over the city, while Muslim troops from India were dispatched to guard the religious landmark the Dome of the Rock. In a proclamation declaring martial law that was read aloud to the city s people in English, French, Arabic, Hebrew, Russian and Greek, Allenby assured them that the occupying power would not inflict further harm on Jerusalem, its inhabitants, or its holy places. "Since your city is regarded with affection by the adherents of three of the great religions of mankind and its soil has been consecrated by the prayers and pilgrimages of multitudes of devout people, I make it known to you that every sacred building, monument, holy spot, shrine, traditional site, endowment, pious bequest, or customary place of prayerwill be maintained and protected according to the existing customs and beliefs of those to whose faith they are sacred." Church bells in Rome and London rang to celebrate the peaceful British arrival in Jerusalem. Allenby s success, after so much discouragement on the Western Front, elated and inspired Allied supporters everywhere.

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

536 - Byzantine General Belisarius enters Rome while the
Ostrogothic garrison peacefully leaves the city, returning the old capital to
its empire.

656 - Battle of Kameel: Kalief Al ibn Abu Talib beats
rebellion

1212 - Frederik II crowns himself Roman Catholic king

1315 - Swiss Woudsteden renews Eternal Covenant (Oath
Society)

1425 - Pope Martinus V forms University of Leuven

1570 - Geuzen under Herman de Ruyter occupies Loevestein

1625 - Netherlands & England sign military treaty

1640 - Settler Hugh Bewitt banished from Mass colony when he
declares himself to be free of original sin

44th US President Barack Obama44th US President Barack Obama
2008 - The Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, is arrested by federal
officials for a number of alleged crimes including attempting to sell the
United States Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama's
election to the Presidency..

2012 - 13 people are killed and 10 are injured after a bus
rolls of a cliff and falls 100 meters in Taiwan

2012 - 6 people are killed and 41 are injured after a bus
plunges 30 metres down a gorge in Guatemala

2012 - Incumbent Ghanaian president John Mahama wins the
general election amidst allegations of fraud

2012 - The Social Liberal Union Party and Romanian Prime
Minister Victor Ponta win by a landslide in the parliamentary elections

2012 - Juan Manuel Márquez knocks out Manny Pacquiao in
round six for the WBO light welterweight title

1594 - Gustavus II of Sweden was born. 1608 - English poet John Milton was born in London. 1625 - The Treaty of the Hague was signed by England and the Netherlands. The agreement was to subsidize Christian IV of Denmark in his campaign in Germany. 1783 - The first executions at Newgate Prison took place. 1793 - "The American Minerva" was published for the first time. It was the first daily newspaper in New York City and was founded by Noah Webster. 1803 - The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress. With the amendment Electors were directed to vote for a President and for a Vice-President rather than for two choices for President. 1848 - American author and creator of "Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit," Joel Chandler Harris was born. 1854 - Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade," was published in England. 1879 - Thomas Edison organized the Edison Ore Milling Company. 1884 - Levant M. Richardson received a patent for the ball-bearing roller skate. 1892 - In London, "Widowers' Houses," George Bernard Shaw's first play, opened at the Royalty Theater. 1907 - Christmas Seals went on sale for the first time, in the Wilmington, DE, post office. 1926 - The United States Golf Association legalized the use of steel-shafted golf clubs. 1914 - The Edison Phonograph Works was destroyed by fire. 1917 - Turkish troops surrendered Jerusalem to British troops led by Viscount Allenby. 1940 - During World War II, British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa. 1940 - The Longines Watch Company signed for the first FM radio advertising contract with experimental station W2XOR in New York City. 1941 - China declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy. 1942 - The Aram Khachaturian ballet "Gayane" was first performed by the Kirov Ballet. 1955 - Sugar Ray Robinson knocked out Carl Olson and regained his world middleweight boxing title. 1958 - In Indianapolis, IN, Robert H.W. Welch Jr. and 11 other men met to form the anti-Communist John Birch Society. 1960 - Sperry Rand Corporation unveiled a new computer, known as "Univac 1107." 1960 - The first episode of "Coronation Street" was screened on ITV. 1962 - "Lawrence of Arabia," by David Lean had its world premiere in London. 1965 - Nikolai V. Podgorny replaced Anastas I. Mikoyan as president of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. 1975 - U.S. President Gerald R. Ford signed a $2.3 billion seasonal loan authorization to prevent New York City from having to default. 1978 - The first game of the Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL) was played between the Chicago Hustle and the Milwaukee Does. 1983 - NATO foreign ministers called on the Soviet Union to join in a "comprehensive political dialogue" to ease tensions in the world. 1984 - Iranian security men seized control of the plane ending a five-day hijacking of a Kuwaiti jetliner, which was parked at the Tehran airport. 1985 - In Argentina, five former military junta members received sentences in prison for their roles in the "dirty war" in which nearly 9,000 people had "disappeared." 1987 - West Bank Palestinians launched an intifada (uprising) against Israeli occupation. 1987 - In the Gaza Strip, an Israeli patrol attacked the Jabliya refugee camp. 1990 - Lech Walesa won Poland's first direct presidential election in the country's history. 1990 - Slobodan Milosovic was elected president in Serbia's first free elections in 50 years. 1990 - The first American hostages to be released by Iraq began arriving in the U.S. 1991 - European Community leaders agreed to begin using a single currency in 1999. 1992 - Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation. 1992 - Clair George, former CIA spy chief, was convicted of lying to the U.S. Congress about the Iran-Contra affair. U.S. President George H.W. Bush later pardoned George. 1992 - U.S. troops arrived in Mogadishu, Somalia, to oversee delivery of international food aid, in operation 'Restore Hope'. 1993 - The U.S. Air Force destroyed the first of 500 Minuteman II missile silos that were marked for elimination under an arms control treaty. 1993 - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavor completed repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope. 1993 - At Princeton University in New Jersey, scientists produced a controlled fusion reaction equivalent to 3 million watts. 1994 - Representatives of the Irish Republican Army and the British government opened peace talks in Northern Ireland. 1994 - U.S. President Clinton fired Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders after learning that she had told a conference that masturbation should be discussed in school as a part of human sexuality. 1996 - UN Secretary General Boutros-Ghali approved a deal allowing Iraq to resume its exports of oil and easing the UN trade embargo imposed on Iraq in 1990. 1999 - The U.S. announced that it was expelling a Russian diplomat that had been caught gathering information with an eavesdropping device at the U.S. State Department. 2002 - United Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after losing $4 billion in the previos two years. It was the sixth largest bankruptcy filing. 2003 - In Australia, thieves broke into a home and stole two 300-year-old etchings by Rembrandt. The 4-by-4-inch etchings, a self-portait and a depiction of the artist's mother, were valued around $518,000.

1941 China declared war against Japan, Germany, and Italy. 1958 The anti-Communist John Birch Society was formed. 1965 "A Charlie Brown Christmas" premiered. 1990 Lech Walesa was elected president of Poland. 1993 U.S. astronauts completed repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope. 1996 Archaeologist and anthropologist Mary Leakey died in Kenya at age 83.